William I or Wilhelm I was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern,he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858,when he became regent for his brother Frederick William IV. During the reign of his grandson Wilhelm II,he was known as Wilhelm the Great.
Georg Leo Graf von Caprivi de Caprara de Montecuccoli was a German general and statesman who served as the chancellor of the German Empire from March 1890 to October 1894. Caprivi promoted industrial and commercial development,and concluded numerous bilateral treaties for reduction of tariff barriers. However,this movement toward free trade angered the conservative agrarian interests,especially the Junkers. He promised educational reforms to the Catholic Center party which would increase their influence,but failed to deliver. As part of Kaiser Wilhelm's "new course" in foreign policy,Caprivi abandoned Bismarck's military,economic,and ideological cooperation with the Russian Empire,which historians consider a major mistake. Even worse,Caprivi misjudged multiple opportunities to open good relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Frustrated,Britain turned to the Empire of Japan and the French Third Republic for agreements. Caprivi's downfall came with trade agreements that favored German industry and urban workers over more powerful agricultural interests. Historians praise his refusal to renew the harsh restrictions on socialists,and his success in the reorganization of the German military.
The German colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies,dependencies,and territories of the German Empire. Unified in 1871,the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries,but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa,Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at the time,after the British and French. The German colonial empire encompassed parts of several African countries,including parts of present-day Burundi,Rwanda,Tanzania,Namibia,Cameroon,Gabon,Congo,Central African Republic,Chad,Nigeria,Togo,Ghana,as well as northeastern New Guinea,Samoa and numerous Micronesian islands.
Eduard Lasker was a German politician and jurist. Inspired by the French Revolution,he became a spokesman for liberalism and the leader of the left wing of the National Liberal party,which represented middle-class professionals and intellectuals. He promoted the unification of Germany during the 1860s and played a major role in codification of the German legal code. Lasker at first compromised with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck,who later strenuously opposed Lasker regarding freedom of the press. In 1881,Lasker left the National Liberal party and helped form the new German Free Thought Party.
German West Africa (Deutsch-Westafrika) was an informal designation for the areas in West Africa that were part of the German Colonial Empire between 1884 and 1919. The term was normally used for the territories of Cameroon and Togo. German West Africa was not an administrative unit. However,in trade and in the vernacular the term was sometimes in use.
Wilhelm Johann Carl Eduard Stieber was Otto von Bismarck's master spy and director of the Prussian Feldgendarmerie. Stieber was both an agent of domestic surveillance and an external agent. Along with Joseph Fouché,he invented modern information gathering.
Curt Karl Bruno von François was a German geographer,cartographer,Schutztruppe officer and commissioner of the imperial colonial army of the German Empire,particularly in German South West Africa where he was responsible on behalf of Kaiser for the foundation of the city of Windhoek on 18 October 1890 and the harbor of Swakopmund on 4 August 1892.
Hermann Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig Wissmann,after 1890 Hermann von Wissmann,was a German explorer and administrator in Africa.
The German Colonial Society (DKG) was a German organisation formed on 19 December 1887 to promote German colonialism. The Society was formed through the merger of the German Colonial Association and the Society for German Colonization. The Society was headquartered in Berlin.
The Astrolabe Company was a German "colonial society" (Kolonialgesellschaft) in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland,which existed from 1891 to 1896. On 27 October 1891 it was founded with a capital of 2.4 million marks. Involved were Hamburg and Bremen notables and the financiers.
Heinrich Albert Schnee was a German lawyer,colonial civil servant,politician,writer,and association official. He served as the last Governor of German East Africa.
The proclamation of the German Empire,also known as the Deutsche Reichsgründung,took place in January 1871 after the joint victory of the German states in the Franco-Prussian War. As a result of the November Treaties of 1870,the southern German states of Baden,Hesse-Darmstadt,with their territories south of the Main line,Württemberg and Bavaria,joined the Prussian-dominated "North German Confederation" on 1 January 1871. On the same day,the new Constitution of the German Confederation came into force,thereby significantly extending the federal German lands to the newly created German Empire. The Day of the founding of the German Empire,January 18,became a day of celebration,marking when the Prussian King William I was proclaimed German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles.
Franz Herre is a German biographer,historian and journalist.
Kapitaï and Koba were two areas on the coast of West Africa which were the object of German colonial initiatives in 1884 and 1885. They lay between the Pongo and Dubréka rivers,south of Senegal and Gambia in modern Guinea;in the terms commonly used in the 19th century they were considered part of Senegambia. The short-lived German colony there was known as the Dembiah colony or Colinsland.
Adolph Kohut was a German-Hungarian journalist,literature and cultural historian,biographer,recitator and translator from Hungarian origin.
Franz Johann Karl Andreas Kretzschmer was a German lawyer,secret war councilor,composer,musicologist and folk song researcher. His main folkloristic work,the Volkslied collection of 1838/40,he published under the name "A. Kretzschmer";In a modern reprint from 1969,this name form is wrongly transformed to "August Kretzschmer".
Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire or Adalbert Emil Walter Le Tanneux von Saint Paul-Illaire was a German colonial official in East Africa. He hailed from the noble family of Le Tanneux von Saint Paul,which had moved to Prussia in the 17th century. The genus Saintpaulia of the African violet was named in his honour after he discovered it in the Usambara Mountains and had sent its seeds in 1893 to Hermann Wendland,the German botanist and Chief Royal gardener at the Herrenhausen Gardens in Hanover,who gave the plant its first description,calling it the Usambara veilchen
Albrecht von Rechenberg,Albrecht Freiherr von Rechenberg or Georg Albrecht Julius Heinrich Friedrich Carl Ferdinand Maria Freiherr von Rechenberg was a German jurist,diplomat and a politician who served as Governor of German East Africa and as a member of the Imperial Diet.
Hans-Georg Wilhelm von Doering was a German officer and the last colonial governor of German Togoland before surrendering the position during the Togoland campaign of the African theatre of World War I.
Rudolf von Bennigsen was a German colonial official. He was the governor of German New Guinea from 1 April 1899 to 10 July 1901.
Kingdom of Prussia (1866–1871)
German Empire (1871–1917)
Prussian Army 
